The Pulaski County Council heard from Laura Bailey, the vice chairperson of the Pulaski County Election Board, about changes that will be made to put municipal elections more in line with the law.
Bailey explained that paperwork for a financial agreement pertaining to municipal elections has not been signed.
“The issue we discovered is that there is no written agreement for that so the towns have been paying roughly 10 percent of what it is actually costing to run these elections. To avoid that, the state law reads that the county must pay 25 percent or more of the cost and the towns should pay their apportioned amount of the rest,”explained Bailey.
The county commissioners last week directed the election board to meet with County Attorney Kevin Tankersley to look at the forms and come up with an agreement between the county and the towns to set an amount.
Bailey said they are working with the Indiana Election Division in moving forward in this process.
The election board submitted a budget to the council and Bailey added that there could be a lot affecting it.
“Some of the smaller towns may not need to have an election. Between you and the commissioners, the number could change based on whatever is negotiated or charged to the towns. The towns can run their own election but they have to use machines.”
The budget submitted includes all of the costs in case the election board is responsible for the entire election.
The council members agreed that the law needs to be followed and will hear soon about progress made in the matter.
The next municipal election is in 2015 and includes the towns of Winamac, Francesville, Medaryville and Monterey.
